


Contingencies

by Persnicketese



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-06
Updated: 2015-12-06
Packaged: 2018-05-05 05:12:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5362631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persnicketese/pseuds/Persnicketese
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Contingencies. There is no stopping what had been started. All it takes in one touch. (SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 34)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Contingencies

One touch. A fingertip was all it took. It was all that was required.. Only a seed is needed to grow things. Druids should have known that.

A voice, a whisper caught in the echoes of a crypt, spoke to her. Ice settled into the seat of her soul as frost crawled towards her heart. It was the last thing she knew. It would be all she would ever know.

They stood there and watched in growing horror as Keyleth turned to them. A cold smile upon her lips as she raised a hand. The orb spun faster, a world in the palm of her hand. 

Vax passed Vex’s unconscious body to Grog. One last lingering look to his twin and he turned to face Keyleth. He had to go to her. 

Her words echoed in the back of his mind. “I can’t lose you.” His heart thudded painfully in his throat with each step. She had tried calling him back. Now he had to call her back. 

He had to. He couldn’t lose her.

“Please.” Heavy with fear and anguish, the words fell from his lips like a prayer to Sarenrae. “Keyleth.”

The smile on her face grew. The sunlight in her eyes died as darkness settled around her, cold as the grave. A new let settled into one of her eyes, baleful glowing as pitch black took the other. 

The look in that one eye stopped Vax dead in his tracks. His breath hitched in his chest as he felt his world slip from his numb fingers and clatter to the floor, shattering. “No. Keyleth, no.”

Contingencies. There is no stopping what had been started.

A finger pointed towards them, familiar lips once warm and sweet twisted wrong. Only one arm moved, the other hung dead at her side, as if it wasn’t even there. A voice in the darkness, a dirge with the softness of rotting petals. The shadows moved, coming to her call.

A single word was uttered and whatever was holding the magic back was gone. A single word was uttered and the air left the room. The bodies on the walls shuddered and groaned, ripping under the power that now filled the void. 

Drowning in that ancient power, it was an escapable presence in the room. Something had returned. Something had been called home.

Vax heard his friends calling, shouting but their words were lost to him. Desperation and despair moved them to action. He knew better. There's no running now. It was too late for that. 

Too late.

She had gone to a place where not even Vax could call her back from. There was nothing left of the beautiful druid he loved. Nothing left but the sound of rattling bones and arcane whispers from beyond.

Delilah wanted the Undying King, but in his stead was the Undying Queen. There was no stopping what had begun. You can’t call into the Abyss without it answering. No amount of begging changes that.

Lady Briarwood had been the one to call, but Keyleth had been the one to receive the answer. The message was the same: Vecna had returned. Keyleth was his herald, his vessel.

Sarenrae help them all.


End file.
